BY MIKE WARREN

FOR HUB CITY TIMES

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – When the second-annual Packers Road Trip rolled into south Wood County the afternoon of July 16, the group was making its fourth stop in central Wisconsin in as many days.

“It’s a little different,” Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy told Hub City Times, during a stop at the Waterford Senior Living Community in Wisconsin Rapids. “We used to call it Tailgate Tour. Now it’s a road trip,” Murphy added. “We still make a lot of stops.”

Murphy and former Packer players Tramon Williams, James Starks, Scott Wells, Mike Neil, Jason Spitz and Tony Moll spent nearly an hour at the Waterford, playing Bingo with many residents in the facility’s Community Room, while visiting others who were not able to leave their private rooms.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Murphy said. “It’s a little later than normal,” he added. “It’s really close to training camp, so we had six former players. Normally we have three current and three former players.”

One of those former players on this year’s tour was Tramon Williams, a cornerback for the Packers from 2007-14, and again from 2018-19. “I love it,” Williams said of the tour, during its southern Wood County stop. “It’s one-of-a-kind. You don’t get many teams going around their state like the Green Bay Packers are doing,” Williams added. “They called me and asked me do I want to be a part of this, and I basically jumped at the opportunity. The team is built off of family. It’s the only team in the NFL that’s community-owned, and that’s a unique thing. So, we don’t want to just be a community-owned team. We want to be seen in the community.” Williams was making his first appearance on the annual Packers tour. “I tried to get to the one last year. It didn’t quite work out with my schedule.”

That evening, the Packers crashed a wedding reception in Stevens Point, their second one on the five-day road trip. The first one occurred during a July 15 trip to La Crosse, where the former Packer players also took a scenic ride down the Mississippi River aboard the La Crosse Queen and threw out first pitches at a La Crosse Loggers baseball game.

The 2022 Packers Road Trip began July 13 with stops at Green Bay East High School, Rawhide Youth Services in New London and Wisconsin Veterans Home in King.

The second leg of the tour July 14 began with a $25,000 donation to Judicare Legal Aid in Wausau. The Packers Road Trip followed up the check presentation with a surprise visit for summer school students at Wausau East.

From there the tour headed west on Highway 29 to the Clark County Rehabilitation & Living Center in Owen, where the group spent time with approximately 100 residents. “This is such a great opportunity for them,” Director of Nursing Karen Simington told packers.com. Another Clark County stop for the group included lunch at Café Dutchess on the Penterman farm in Thorp.